Report shows P-H-M pass/fail rates

Principals: Lower failures suggest smooth transitions.

Principals: Lower failures suggest smooth transitions.

February 18, 2006|ERIN MILLER Tribune Staff Writer

MISHAWAKA -- Penn- Harris-Madison school board members had their first-ever look at overall pass/fail rates for the corporation's sixth- through 12th-graders earlier this week. "You can see, at Penn-Harris-Madison, B is our average grade," Discovery Middle School Principal Sheryll Harper told board members. In some middle school subjects, nearly 80 percent of students earn A's and B's, she added. Harper and Penn High School Assistant Principal Steve Hope prepared the report, which examined the percentage of students failing core subjects -- English, math, science and social studies. The principals said the failure rates can show how smoothly the transitions from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school are being made. Sixth-grade scores showed low failure rates during the first and second marking periods, Harper said. The higher failure rate came during the second marking period, when 5 percent of the corporation's sixth-graders failed in science. Failures increased in seventh and eighth grade. Harper noted that the percentage of seventh-graders failing math more than doubled from the first marking period to the second. "This tells us what we need to watch for in our placement in mathematics," she said. High school scores showed, overall, a consistent percentage of students failing classes in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. The highest failure rates were in the ninth grade, except for students enrolled in Penn's Freshman Academy. About 150 freshmen have a core group of five teachers for several classes. Those students' grades reflected lower failure rates, Hope said. "You see a huge difference," the assistant principal said. "The percentage of students who received a failing grade is half." The group of students not enrolled in the fledgling program did earn a higher percentage of A's, but the non-academy students include honors-track students. No honors students are enrolled in the academy, Hope said. "We've finally got something that's really going to work," he added. Board members questioned the proposal to end the homeroom resource program and cut 12 teaching positions at the high school. Randy Leliaert asked Hope if those cuts would make expanding the freshman academy to all incoming students impossible. Leliaert also asked how cutting those jobs and the time for club meetings during the school day would affect students' ability to participate in extracurricular programs. "What's going to happen to the students who are expected to work after school, come home after school?" Leliaert asked. Increasing freshman participation in clubs and other activities was a goal administrators had set to increase students' sense of ownership and participation in the high school, Hope said. This year, the percentage of freshman participating in those activities surpassed the percentage of 10th- through 12th-graders. Staff writer Erin Miller: emiller@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6553